It's been another week of considering monasteries and of testing the 15th century French theory that women's heads would explode if they studied too much (source unverified) and of losing one more defective vein to the almighty laser. You know, the norm. Not to mention the considerable amount of energy I put into forward motion. And just living the college dream and all.

So since coming home from my mission (#referencepoints), I've been kind of obsessed with the principle of vulnerability. Maybe that comes from the forward motion thinking. But mostly because of Brene Brown and her brilliant books and Tedtalks and youtube videos (her most famous being http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability). Maybe because my whole life I've been told that being a perfectionist wasn't a good thing to be (despite the extolling of perfect things) but I never knew why and then all of the sudden my mind exploded (but not because I'm a woman, contrary to popular belief)…

This
week, I decided to join a monastery. But
then I realized I couldn’t because monasteries were only for men. So
then I decided I should join a convent but then I thought it out some more and
decided I should keep studying because who knows if convents even exist in
America anymore? Okay,
actually I just looked it up and there are some in Wisconsin, Missouri, and
Texas. But as
it turns out, I’m not that interested in real life. It’s
just that that can happen when you spend all your free time thinking about Erasmus,
Luther, and why anyone would pick eremitic monstasicism over cenobitic
monasticism in early Tsarist Russia. Okay,
just kidding, I think about other things too. But
these thoughts are usually the simplest and least emotionally exhausting (on
most days) And I actually
didn’t really want to spend my time writing about the historical or personal
significance of monasteries or the perks of hiding in one. I
wanted to write about my vein surgery! Because
that’s what all the popular blog…

I can’t ever
decide if the first week of school is the hardest or the easiest of the
semester. I have this
nasty habit of thinking that the thousands of pages of reading and writing
found on each class’s syllabus must be completed in a seven day span.. But as soon
as I get it all written down in color-coded fashion, I feel better about life.

It’s hard
knowing that you have so much work before you that has not yet been completed
but it’s nice that the men in your head aren’t bugging you about papers due
next week (perhaps only about memorizing a Russian map). Or maybe
those are just the men in my head. Because
maybe you ostracized the men that perhaps once dwelled in your head. But we don’t
have to discuss that and the possible health concerns associated therewith. No, I don’t
mention those men on first dates. Though I do
on a public blog so….maybe not my best choice #datingproblemnumberthirtythree Anyways. During the
momentous week of newness (or rather just old things feeling new again) an…